I-Corps: Trackable Reasoning and Analysis Software for Collaboration and Evaluation

这个i-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发一个软件应用程序，情报分析员可以使用该应用程序来提高其分析的质量和准确性。关键推理中的错误对数据分析是有害的。此外，这些报告往往不能让读者清楚地了解分析师的工作，这可能会导致糟糕的决策。过去解决这些问题的方法收效甚微，没有涵盖分析过程中的每一个步骤。拟议的技术提供了一种更灵活的推理方法，通过识别关键信息，确定前进的最佳路径，并撰写高质量的最终报告，增强分析师的推理能力，并为决策者提供对分析师流程的清晰感觉。通过将拟议的技术转化为商业上可行的应用，随着决策者获得必要的分析以推行促进国家安全的政策和战略，情报失败的可能性可以降低。这一应用程序还可以作为其他研究和商业技术的基础，旨在帮助在其他领域工作的分析师，如执法、取证、企业安全、保险和金融。这个i-Corps项目建立在该团队之前的研究基础上，开发一种最先进的技术，帮助国家情报分析师进行更好的推理和报告撰写。情报分析师经常努力确保他们的研究和推理避免关键错误，如认知偏差。过去解决错误的方法受到了有限的理解，因为分析人士发现这些方法负担沉重，缺乏吸引力。目前的方法不能涵盖分析过程中的每一个步骤。拟议的方法代表了一种端到端的工作流程解决方案，通过确定关键信息、确定前进道路并编写高质量的最终报告，为决策者提供了一种更灵活的推理方法，使决策者能够清楚地了解分析师的流程。这项技术提供报告模板和几个可选工具，帮助分析师处理和评估信息，将他们的内存和推理工作卸载到应用程序，并轻松地与合作者共享推理。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of a software application that intelligence analysts can use to improve the quality and accuracy of their analyses. Errors in critical reasoning are detrimental to data analyses. Furthermore, the reports often do not provide readers with a clear sense of the analyst's work, which can result in poor decision-making. Past approaches to address these issues have had limited success and do not cover each step in the analytical process. The proposed technology offers a more flexible reasoning approach by identifying key information, determining the best path forward, and composing a quality final report that enhances the analysts' reasoning and provides decision-makers with a clear sense of the analyst's process. By transforming the proposed technology into a commercially viable application, the likelihood of intelligence failures could be reduced as decision-makers access the necessary analyses to pursue policies and strategies that promote national security. This application could also serve as the foundation for additional research and commercial technologies oriented towards helping analysts working in other fields, such as law enforcement, forensics, corporate security, insurance, and finance.This I-Corps project builds from the team's prior research on developing a state-of-the-art technology to help national intelligence analysts engage in better reasoning and report writing. Intelligence analysts often struggle to ensure that their research and reasoning avoid critical errors, such as cognitive biases. Past approaches to address errors have had limited uptake because analysts find them burdensome and unappealing. Current approaches do not cover each step in the analytical process. The proposed approach represents an end-to-end workflow solution, that offers a more flexible reasoning approach by identifying key information, determining the path forward, and composing a quality final report that provides decision-makers with a clear sense of the analyst's process. This technology offers report templates and several optional tools that help analysts process and evaluate information, offload their memory and reasoning work to the application, and share that reasoning effortlessly with collaborators.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.